


Calm after the Storm

by Findswoman



Series: The Lasan Series [4]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Friendship, Lasan, Lasat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-04 15:28:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15844134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Findswoman/pseuds/Findswoman
Summary: Shulma receives comfort and support from her friends after Porfozald harasses her. An “outtake” of sorts from “The Sad, Sad Story of Porfozald Marballees!,” showing Shulma’s reaction to the happenings of the second chapter.





	Calm after the Storm

_2nd 22.8, Tomb of Osthi the Storm-Dreamer, Feldspar Falls_  
  
The evening silence of the women’s pilgrimage house was shattered as the door flew open. A red-cloaked female figure rushed in, washed her hands quickly and assiduously in the washing alcove, and then sank onto one of the nearby couches, burying her face in her hands.  
  
“Shulma! Are you all right?” Another female figure ran up and sat beside the first. She moved closer and embraced her friend as she noticed her trembling and weeping. “Oh no, Shulma, what’s wrong?”  
  
“Oh Rishla...” Shulma leaned on Rishla's shoulder, taking a moment to breathe and collect herself. “It was... it was absolutely horrible...”  
  
“What happened?”  
  
“Porfozald… out in the courtyard… he was unbearable...” Shulma took another deep breath and told Rishla all that had happened: how Porfozald had detained her after her meditation in the tomb-chamber, how he had foot-gripped her to keep her from getting away, how he had followed her out into the courtyard and all he had said and done there. “And then he grabbed my hand and kissed it... again and again... even though I’d already told him to leave me alone...”  
  
“That slimeface!” Rishla gnashed her teeth. “Just because his papa’s on the Consistory he thinks he can just do whatever he—Oh, Shulma, that’s just—I’m so sorry—he didn’t— _hurt_ you, did he?”  
  
“No, thank the Ashla... I managed to pull free and smack him on the ear...” Her mouth curved for a moment into a sly smile. “Then I ran back here. But it was all so... I mean, to do such a thing in a holy place—” She signed the Triangle suddenly as the sound of loud knocking from the pilgrimage house door cut her off, punctuated by shouts of her name. “Oh sacred Ashla, that's him! Oh, my head... I feel so weak...” New tears overtook her as she hid her face in Rishla's shoulder.  
  
“There, now. Just ignore him. Let’s get you to the dormitory.” The knocking and shouting continued as Rishla led Shulma down a short hallway and through a door, which she closed behind them. They were now in a room with several beds, each in its own alcove against the wall. Rishla helped Shulma off with her cloak and eased her down onto one of the beds.  
  
"Right. You’re safe now. Let’s check your currents..." She placed two finger pads below Shulma’s ear, then ran them gently along her brow ridges. “Oh dear, the Ashla’s storming all around you… Here, close your eyes and breathe and see if you can get your currents calm… There, that’s good… keep breathing… think of something that comforts you and makes you happy…”  
  
“Zeb…”  
  
Rishla gave a little laugh. “Yes, he’s a good example.”  
  
“No, no, it’s just... I was thinking… well…”  
  
“Yes?”  
  
“You don’t think he’d be... angry with me?”  
  
“Why in the Ashla’s name would he be angry with you?”  
  
“Because... because I was incautious... because I shouldn’t have put myself in a position where some other male could accost me... I don’t know...”  
  
“Oh come on, Shulma. It’s not like you knew that sleemo was going to treat you that way. You made it clear that you didn’t like what he was doing. You did everything you could to get away from him. I bet Zeb will just be happy you’re safe. Hey…” She leaned closer with an encouraging smile. “Just another day and a half and you’ll get to see him again.”  
  
Shulma blushed and lowered her eyes. “Oh Rishla, listen to you…”  
  
“I mean it! Look, try not to worry, all right? It’s only going to ruffle your currents up again. Just focus on breathing and resting. I’ll go get Wise Chava.”  
  
“Thanks, Rishla,” breathed Shulma as she closed her eyes and relaxed. Rishla made for the doorway but stopped short with a murmured “ _Akh kara basta…_ ” just as a third young woman—slightly shorter and with a mischievous, lopsided smile—entered and greeted her.  
  
“Hey there, Rishla.”  
  
“Er… hi, Yhazi.”  
  
The newcomer glanced over at Shulma’s bed, then lowered her voice to a whisper and continued. “So, what’s up with the Storm-Dreamer of Flowstone Vale? Her currents acting up again?”  
  
“Yes, afraid so—Yhazi—”  
  
“Aw, poor little thing, I can feel her storming from here. What’s going on?”  
  
“Porfozald was giving her trouble… right now she just needs to rest and she’ll—”  
  
“Porfozald?” Yhazi’s amber eyes widened. “Oh, was that _him_ making all that noise at the door just now?”  
  
“Yes, I think so. Yhazi—”  
  
“Wise Chava just came by and told him off… so do tell, what was he doing? Was he _flirting_ with her?”  
  
“If you call grabbing her hand and kissing it again and again against her will _flirting…_ ”  
  
“Hey, I’d be flattered if it was me! I know she’s into that _Guardsman_ right now—”  
  
“Yhazi—”  
  
“—and he’s got some fine stripes, for sure—”  
  
“Yhazi, please—”  
  
“—but she shouldn’t limit her options, y’know?”  
  
“Yhazi, now really isn’t the time.”  
  
“Sorry, sorry… just teasing... mostly. Anyway, where are _you_ going? Why aren’t you staying with her?”  
  
“Well, I was going to go get Wise Chava—”  
  
“Yeah, but didn’t Wise Chava say we shouldn’t leave her alone when she gets all stirred up like this? Could lead to vision shock, remember? Hey, we could both stay with her and do one of those tandem calming rituals from the Book of the Four Protecting Cloaks… how about that?”  
  
Rishla sighed and shrugged. “Sure, I guess so… just keep the teasing down, all right? It’s not what she needs right now.”  
  
“Fine, fair enough… I’ll try, anyway. C’mon.”  
  
Together they went over to Shulma’s bed, positioning themselves each on either side. Their friend was much calmer now, breathing deeply and rhythmically but still shifting fitfully now and then. Her eyes flickered open as they approached.  
  
“Yhazi… that you...?”  
  
“Hey, lady. Go back to sleep. Rishla and I are gonna take care of you, all right?”  
  
“What are you going to—”  
  
“Just a little calming sequence. Don’t worry about a thing. Just close your eyes and focus on something pleasant. I bet I know who, too, heh heh, someone strong and _stripey…_ sorry, sorry,” she added hastily as Rishla glared at her. “Yeah, just relax. You’re gonna be all right, all right?”  
  
“Um… all right…”  
  
Shulma exhaled, closed her eyes, and relaxed. Yhazi took a piece of ritual chalk from her dress pocket and began drawing a series of small, semi-abstract glyphs on the wall near the head of the bed. Rishla watched her for a moment, then took out her own chalk and began drawing a different series of small glyphs. Then both of them traced the Triangle on Shulma’s shoulders, closed their eyes, and began two simultaneous chants:  
  
“ _Sovereign Ashla, source of the eight strengths, strengthen her…_ ”  
  
“ _Gracious Ashla, restorer of the hidden and the revealed brightness, restore her…_ ”  


* * *

  
Later that night, Chava came through the women’s house as usual to check that all was well. Most of the female initiates were in bed and asleep by now; she signed the Triangle over each of them and now and then would chalk a protecting glyph on the wall. But two beds were empty: Rishla’s and Yhazi’s. Chava looked around and found them kneeling in a meditative trance beside the sleeping Shulma, resting their heads on their arms at her sides.  
  
The elder shaman stood and watched them for several moments, smiling to herself. It was such a relief to see Shulma resting so peacefully after all she had been through that evening. Lying there with one hand at her side and the other lying on her breast, with her long hair flowing about her, she looked so much like the recumbent sculpture of Osthi in the tomb-shrine. And her friends lingered in their trance beside her the same way Shulma herself had lingered so many times beside Osthi’s tomb...  
  
On the wall behind the head of the bed, between the two groups of smaller glyphs drawn by Rishla and Yhazi, Chava drew a large glyph of three flowers twined at their stems, intoning a quiet prayer as she did so. Just as she finished and turned to go, her eyes fell on a small flimsi card on the bedside table—a holoimage of a young male in military uniform. This she slipped gently into the hand that lay on Shulma’s breast, then left the room. ¶

**Author's Note:**

> Date (2nd 22.8): Note that Porfozald’s entry for 2nd 23.9 states that the events recounted took place “last night.”
> 
> “Storm-Dreamer of Flowstone Vale”: The pilgrimage site where this story takes place is the tomb of the (fanon) ancient Lasat prophetess Osthi the Storm-Dreamer, in her home village of Feldspar Falls. Thus one of Osthi’s epithets is “the Storm-Dreamer of Feldspar Falls” (cf. RL saints’ epithets like “The Eagle of Patmos,” “The Little Flower of Lisieux,” etc.). This is Yhazi’s semi-teasing way of applying the same epithet to Shulma (Flowstone Vale being Shulma’s home village, as established in Raissa Baiard’s Purple Prose).
> 
> Again, the Lasat shamanic rituals are all my fanon; the sign of the Triangle is Raissa Baiard’s creation.


End file.
